Dear Wikimedians,
Please join me in welcoming Sue Gardner to the Wikimedia Foundation. Sue
joins us today as a consultant and special advisor to the Wikimedia
Board of Trustees.
Sue’s arrival is an important step for Wikimedia as we continue to
evolve as an organization. We want to ensure sustainability and
reliability, as well as set the stage for future growth: Sue’s role is
to help us do that. She is well-suited to the job: she’s
consensus-oriented (which as we know is important in an organization
like ours), and she has experience leading change and managing
transitions like the one we’re facing. She is sympathetic to our goals
and values, and also has some experience with collaborative projects.
Sue will be responsible for assessing and improving all aspects of the
Foundation’s operations. This means she’ll be taking a look at how we do
things today –everything from staffing to fundraising to financial
controls– and recommending improvements.
Sue comes to us from CBC.CA, the website of Canada’s national public
broadcaster, and that country’s largest and most popular news site.
Under her leadership as Senior Director there, CBC.CA more than doubled
its audience size, and won dozens of international awards. Prior to
running CBC.CA, she was a journalist for 10 years, writing for magazines
and newspapers, and making documentaries and talk programming for media
companies such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British
Broadcasting Corporation and National Public Radio.
Please join me in welcoming her.
Florence Devouard
Chair Wikimedia Foundation